Monthly Archives: April 2013

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Everyone knows about dog shaming, right? This is similar except for graduate students in the field of English. I love it because a lot of my secret English student insecurities have already been confessed so I don’t feel like as much of a failure. I’m definitely not in grad school (nor do I plan on attending grad school), but I think these are great for lovers of English and literature regardless of grade standing.

I hope you check it out and enjoy it. In the spirit of English Grad Student Shaming, I’m going to share one of my own. (I’d post it to the Tumblr but I don’t have one…because I’m a loser.)

Like this:

While in my English Literature class today, I read a piece by Oscar Wilde. It’s his Preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray where he talks briefly about what an artist is, what art is, and the relationship between the two.

The artist is the creator of beautiful things. To reveal art and conceal the artist is art’s aim. The critic is he who can translate into another manner or a new material his impression of beautiful things.
The highest as the lowest form of criticism is a mode of autobiography. Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault.

Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only beauty.

There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.

The nineteenth century dislike of realism is the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in a glass.

The nineteenth century dislike of romanticism is the rage of Caliban not seeing his own face in a glass. The moral life of man forms part of the subject-matter of the artist, but the morality of art consists in the perfect use of an imperfect medium. No artist desires to prove anything. Even things that are true can be proved. No artist has ethical sympathies. An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style. No artist is ever morbid. The artist can express everything. Thought and language are to the artist instruments of an art. Vice and virtue are to the artist materials for an art. From the point of view of form, the type of all the arts is the art of the musician. From the point of view of feeling, the actor’s craft is the type. All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. Those who read the symbol do so at their peril. It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors. Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital. When critics disagree, the artist is in accord with himself. We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.

All art is quite useless.

Basically, what he is saying is this: An artist is one that can see beauty in anything. There is no malevolent or benevolent art, there is only well done or not well done art. An artist does not wish to make a point or be praised; they make art to make art. Art is, upon impact, surface deep. That is where you will find happiness. To look deeper is to find deeper emotion, not all of which is happy. Art should not serve a purpose or fill a slot. It is meant to be a source of beauty in your life like a soft summer breeze or an undisturbed blanket of crisp, white snow.

This is of course only one interpretation in a sea of others but I thought it was a particularly pretty and on-point explanation of what it is to create.

Like this:

About five years ago (when I was 16), I developed a very strong love/hate relationship with my skin. You know, the typical teenage pizzaface situation. I never had it too bad, but to this day I get to endure the humiliation that is a huge, red mountain in the space in between my eyes that no amount of makeup could ever cover up. (The zit just described currently resides on my face, by the way.) Ahh, good times. It seems like every day that I learn of one more thing that is conspiring to ruin my oh-so- fair complexion. To this end, I have compiled a list for my fellow sufferers of uncooperative skin. The following list contains the 25 things I have deemed BAD for skin throughout the years.

bad diet

not enough exercise

not enough water

not washing it enough

washing it too much

too much sunlight

too much time looking at puppies (I call this one “insta-zit”)

sleeping in late on a rainy Sunday

watching a good movie

getting a cute, new pair of shoes

celebrating a birthday

snagging a cute shirt on sale (death sentence for your face)

getting an A on a test you studied really hard for

remembering to bring your umbrella at the last second

seeing cute babies

sleeping in late on any day

eating one Dove dark chocolate square

making a new friend

taking up a new hobby

watching a sunrise

watching a sunset (this one is WORSE than the sunrise)

watching a new episode of your favorite show

finding out you won tickets to a concert

listening to any music you enjoy

finishing a paper more than 24 hours before it’s due

I capped it at 25 but my rule of thumb when deciding if something is bad for my skin is to ask myself this: “Will this bring any kind of joy to my life?” If the answer is yes, it is most definitely going to cause varying degrees of pizza-ing to your face. If no, it will probably still hurt your skin in some way.